The present invention relates generally to utility services, and more specifically, to a method and contingency analysis information system for providing an automated and integrated way for analyzing a utility service network and addressing fault occurrences within the utility service network.
Utility service networks periodically experience fault occurrences such as feeder losses, feeder faults, overloads and outages. Typically, to address these fault occurrences, an operator(s) of the utility service network is required to gather information by navigating through several separate applications. Each application may require separate login information in order to access the respective application. Once logged in, the operator may have to further to navigate through various screens within the respective application to obtain the information needed for analyzing the contingency and respond.
For example, if there is a loss of a feeder, an operator accesses several different applications to determine which feeder is lost. If a fault occurs on a feeder, in order to determine where the fault has taken place, the operator accesses several different applications which show reactance to fault application, reports of manhole fires on the feeder, contractor damage, trouble structures having environmental problems, and requests for cleaning structures, for example. The operator also has to determine the nature of the feeder fault by accessing various applications, and attempt to predict the next worst feeder to lose by accessing several different applications. The operator further determines if there are any current distribution equipment overloads, any isolated or spot networks affected, and overhead systems affected such as step-downs, multibank substation, and whether there are any existing customer outages and attempts to predict future outages. The process of analyzing the fault occurrences and responding to these occurrences can be very time-consuming.
While existing methods for analyzing utility service network faults are suitable for their intended purpose, improvements may be made in providing a method and contingency analysis system that provides an integrated application of the utility service network and system conditions.